But
reason seems to have little to do with the C.I.A.’s operations, as Mr.
Brennan apparently discovered far too late. On Thursday, the Central
Intelligence Agency admitted that it did, indeed, use a fake online identity
to break into the Senate’s computers, where documents connected to a
secret report on the agency’s detention and torture program were being
stored. Mr. Brennan apologized privately to Ms. Feinstein and to Senator
Saxby Chambliss, the vice chairman of the intelligence committee, and
promised to set up an accountability board to determine who did the
hacking and whether and how they should be punished.

The
committee has been working since 2009 on a comprehensive history of the
agency’s antiterror program during the George W. Bush administration,
which involved illegal rendition to other countries, detention, and
torture of suspects, all producing little useful intelligence. It has
been frustrated at many points by stonewalling from the agency, whichprovided misleading information, hid important facts inside a blizzard
of excess documents, and forced endless delays in the declassification
process. The 6,300-page report
still has not been made public, though parts of it may be released
later this month, and it is expected to undercut the Bush
administration’s claims that its actions were both legal and effective.

In
an extraordinary speech on the Senate floor in March, Ms. Feinstein
accused the agency of having “undermined the constitutional framework
essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence
activities or any other government function.” The institutional affront
even drew Republican criticism. If the charge was true, said Senator
Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, “heads should roll, and people should go to jail.”

One
of those heads may need to be Mr. Brennan’s.If he knew about the
break-in, then he blatantly lied. If he did not, then apparently he was
unaware of the lawless culture that has festered within the C.I.A. since
the moment it was encouraged by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to
torture suspects and then lie about it. That recklessness extended to
the point where agency officials thought nothing of burglarizing their
own overseer. Senator Mark Udall of Coloradosaid the action was illegal
and required the resignation of Mr. Brennan.

The
C.I.A. needs far more than a few quiet personnel changes, however. Its
very core, and basic culture, needs a thorough overhaul."

"A version of this editorial appears in print on August 1, 2014, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: The C.I.A.’s Reckless Breach of Trust."